In private homes, ready-to-eat breakfast cereal is generally either stored in the box in which it was purchased or transferred to a sealed container for storage. The consumer then transfers the desired amount of cereal to his serving bowl by pouring or scooping.
Hotels, restaurants, residential institutions and other establishments in which breakfast buffets are available frequently present breakfast cereals in large bowls to which the consumer may help himself using a scoop. There are many disadvantages associated with these storage and dispensing arrangements.
Firstly, spillage frequently occurs during transfer of the cereal from the storage bowl to the consumer's bowl, causing wastage and mess.
Secondly, freshness is not preserved. If cereal is stored in its original box, no air-tight seal is provided and the cereal at the bottom of the box may become stale before consumption. In the case of the storage bowl or container, no continual flow of fresh product is maintained, since the bowl or container may be repeatedly refilled from above, resulting in stale cereal remaining at the bottom.
Thirdly, these methods are unhygienic, since the food is exposed to contamination by dust, insect matter and other airborne particles. Such contamination may occur even if the box is closed or a cover is provided, since each consumer must remove the cover prior to helping himself to cereal. Furthermore, the cereal may inadvertently be touched by the consumer during the scooping process.
Fourthly, crushing of the cereal frequently occurs during scooping, resulting in product wastage.
Various solid food devices comprising an enclosed reservoir with an attached dispensing mechanism have been developed to alleviate the problems associated with unsanitary storage and dispensing methods.
However, most of the known bulk food dispensers are suitable for food comprising hard pieces, such as beans or hard candies, but cause considerable breakage and crushing of fragile foods such as breakfast cereals. Dispensers which have been described as being suitable for breakfast cereals have a tendency to become jammed. Furthermore, the majority of conventional dispensers are extremely hard to clean efficiently, resulting in a non-hygienic food dispensing system, or requiring considerable time and effort to be regularly invested in cleaning the system.
In addition, conventional systems do not provide hermetic sealing of the cereal in the storage section of the dispenser, therefore do not ensure freshness of the product.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a closed, hygienic dispensing system for ready-to-eat cereals which does not cause breakage of the product, which provides hermetic sealing of the product within a storage area prior to dispensing, and which is simple to refill and maintain.